Excercises to strengthen wrists

jenny3008

My PT has recently started doing weights with me again and after some training he has been on the technique has changed. Just to clarify it wasn't wrong before just different.

I like the weights and I'm making progress I have in the last week achieved an extra 2kg on my strict shoulder press, 5kg on my push press and 10kg on my deadlift.

Where I am struggling though is my wrists. I have hypermobile joints which means my weights are never going to be particularly impressive but I'm really struggling holding my wrists in position on the presses and squats front squats in particular.

I know my flexibility is poor, which is ironic considering my joints are so bad and I'm working on the stretches for my shoulders and wrists so that I can get in the correct position with my elbows up but I'm looking for something I can do to strengthen the wrist itself so that it doesn't just fall out of position on me.

Any help/advice appreciated. I wear wrist supports but I'm just looking to supplement this with actual joint strength

Calliope610

this may sound silly, but baton twirling is excellent for building wrist flexibility and strength.

rybo

So do you have hyper flexible joints or poorly flexible joints. I'm having a hard time following.

jenny3008

I have hypermobility in my joints, it means that the ligaments and tendons etc which should hold them in place are too stretchy for want of a simple explanation.

It means I have lots of problems maintaining my body in normal alignment. I don't think I have a set of joints that haven't separated or twisted or somehow not sat where they should and it leads to certain challenges for me while exercising.

On top of this I am not very flexible in the right ways. Its sort of ironic really that I can separate my pelvis sitting down but I can't touch my toes.

HeySwoleSister

I'm like that, too, Jenny....My hamstrings are SUPER tight, always have been...but my JOINTS are freakishly hypertonic...my elbows and knees both hyperextend naturally (so if I hold my arms out "straight," they actually bend PAST the 180 degree mark, for example) Joint ligaments can be loose and muscles and tendons tight in the same body.

I have a problem with lots of body weight moves because of this. Even a downward facing dog will make my wrists ache after a few minutes. I'm getting older and now getting age-related stiffness and pain in my fingers and wrists, which also doesn't help matters.

Sorry no advice, but I feel your pain...literally.

dbmata

You're already working with a PT. Ask them. They know your body.

DopeItUp

I have the same exact problem, I just wear wrist wraps on my heaviest working set for the day. Wrist curls and grip strength rollers are supposed to help but personally, I have to be careful because I have carpal tunnel in my wrists too and that causes it to flare up even worse.

Having said that, your post is fairly confusing, you talk about hypermobility but then you say your wrists aren't flexible enough for front squats. Kinda contradictory. If your wrists aren't flexible enough for front squats then just use a different grip, like so:


(with straps)


(crossed grip)

I do the latter grip, works fine for me. If your wrists are bending too much on other movements, just use wrist wraps as I mentioned. Make sure you're holding the bar correctly too, most people don't and that bends the wrists too far and can be very painful. You want the bar as far down into the palm as possible. It should be almost falling out of your hand.

Unknown

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dbmata

You humbug you!

OP should try rock climbing.

jenny3008

DopeItUp wrote: »

I have the same exact problem, I just wear wrist wraps on my heaviest working set for the day. Wrist curls and grip strength rollers are supposed to help but personally, I have to be careful because I have carpal tunnel in my wrists too and that causes it to flare up even worse.

Having said that, your post is fairly confusing, you talk about hypermobility but then you say your wrists aren't flexible enough for front squats. Kinda contradictory. If your wrists aren't flexible enough for front squats then just use a different grip, like so:

Thanks for that are wrist curls like bicep curls but using your wrists.

Just to clear things up all of my joints are hyper mobile its a different thing from flexibility. The ligaments which should hold my joints together and in the correct position are too loose which leads to the joints not sitting where they should properly as the bones can move too much. When I say joint I mean every piece of bone that is held in place by a ligament. Then all the muscles try to do the job that the ligaments should be doing to compensate for the lack of stability, this leads to them being tight and tense way more than they should and hence the lack of flexibility.

jenny3008

EWJLang wrote: »

I'm like that, too, Jenny....My hamstrings are SUPER tight, always have been...but my JOINTS are freakishly hypertonic...my elbows and knees both hyperextend naturally (so if I hold my arms out "straight," they actually bend PAST the 180 degree mark, for example) Joint ligaments can be loose and muscles and tendons tight in the same body.

I have a problem with lots of body weight moves because of this. Even a downward facing dog will make my wrists ache after a few minutes. I'm getting older and now getting age-related stiffness and pain in my fingers and wrists, which also doesn't help matters.

Sorry no advice, but I feel your pain...literally.

Its great isn't it. I'm not even allowed to do yoga or pilates apparently it will aggravate things. Good job I get bored of them easily.

I have arthritis in most of my joints now thanks to it but the most frustrating part is that the bones of my feet don't stay in place so I have to be conscious of my movement almost every step or I fall over but onwards and upwards the strength training helps

Willbenchforcupcakes

I have the exact same issue. I'm currently a member of the bench more then I squat club, at least for working sets as my coaches and I restabilize my pelvis. One thing I've found is that the stronger the muscles are, the less overall issues I have. And I use wrist straps whenever I need to.

blueakama

You can squeeze a squash ball to gain strength.

You could also buy a wrist gyroscope (google it). Although I bought one and then never used it! It's kind of fun, but I don't think I was very good at it.

DvrDawg

Here is a good website with video examples of exercises (including wrist curls). Many of the forearm exercises will help with wrists. But, I agree, your PT might be able to give you some other suggestions. Good Luck!

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/finder/lookup/filter/muscle/id/2/muscle/forearms

chrisdavey

shake weight?

The wrist curls will strengthen your forearm flexors but unsure if that will actually help with the wrist joint. My partner has hypermobile joints and she just wears wrist wraps for bench, OHP and low bar squats. Seems to be all good that way.

jenny3008

Thanks all for the advice. I will try some of those exercises at home I just need to get some lighter weight dumbells. The 5kg I have here are too heavy for my weakling wrists.
I will work on my grip strength as well